The end of our trip....

TGIF!!  It's nice to have a three-day weekend ahead!!  On this Memorial Day weekend, we honor those brave men and women who gave their lives for our freedom.

We woke up last Friday morning to the promise of rain in New Orleans.  We set out walking toward the Riverwalk area, where there is an outlet mall, next to Harrah's Casino.  We walked both levels of the mall and stopped at the Cafe DuMonde that was located in the mall.  It was cleaner, not crowded and the beignets were actually better than in the French Quarter.

 These two sculptures on Poydras Street look SO real!  We really thought they were Mimes posing, but they are sculpture.  They are in the median strip of the street, so you can't really get up close and personal with them without endangering yourself.  

It started pouring rain so we decided to buy tickets for a city tour, on an air-conditioned bus.  We have done the city tour a couple of times before, but this time they took us into the 9th ward, where Katrina hit the hardest.  It was worth the money and was very interesting.  The driver told us that 75,000 of all those people who left the city have never returned to New Orleans.  The bus driver also told us that the Superdome had 25,000 people living there.  On our news, back then, they made it sound like the entire population of New Orleans was in the Superdome.  It was a terrible time, and many are still suffering.

There was the mandatory stop at one of the cemeteries (this is #3). We stayed on the bus. It was raining and I have pictures from other tours of the above-ground graves. It's interesting, but I didn't need to get wet for it.

 Entering the 9th Ward, one house still has the markings from the search and rescue teams.  This home was visited on September 12th. They didn't enter it (NE) and they determined there were no bodies (the zero with the line through it) I don't know what the TFW stands for, but it was tough to see and the bus got real quiet for a couple of minutes.

The owner of the home has turned it into his own little attraction for the tour buses.  He came out and waved at us, and has all kinds of stuff sitting/hanging around, with the sign below, over his driveway.

Harry Connick, Jr. and Wynton Marsalis worked with Habitat For Humanity to build a "Musicians' Village" so the low-income musicians would come back to the city and get the music playing again.  The neighborhood is neat, colorful and well maintained after 10 years.

We got back to the hotel and had dinner there one last time.  We got our room organized and ready to finish packing up the next morning to start the journey home.  Breakfast was again in the hotel's wonderful Cafe on the Square.  It was a different menu for the weekend, and I got this wonderful dish with crawfish!!  It was so delicious and I was so excited to have crawfish again!

The weather was still rainy, but we had decided to take the scenic route home.  It meant about four more hours on the road, but would be along the Gulf of Mexico and much more interesting than I-10.  I started doing all the driving years ago, when Joe had really bad cataracts and was afraid to drive, especially at night.  They have been removed and he has good vision now, but I think he likes being the passenger.  He'll drive if I ask him to take over for awhile, but I just do the driving.

We made it to Biloxi, Mississippi and decided to stop at the Beau Rivage Casino.  It's been a long time since we visited a casino. We forgot how bad they smell from all the cigarette smoke.  Joe and I both used to smoke, but it was years and years and years ago.  We can really smell that odor now and it is very unpleasant.  Anyway, we made a deposit of $30.00 with no withdrawals.  It took us about 30 minutes to lose that $30.00 and then we were heading for the parking garage!  LOL

It was still pouring rain. Pouring. So we gave up on the scenic route and got back on I-10, where traffic was moving, but only at 45 mph and everyone had hazard lights flashing.  Fortunately, we saw no accidents. People were being sensible.  We made it into Alabama, where we saw a double rainbow and felt good about the rest of our trip home.  Tallahassee was a good place to stop for the night, after being on the road almost eight hours.  We were both tired, even though it was only five more hours to get home.

We got up early and made it safely home by 1:00 p.m.  I was able to get laundry done, and we went to the grocery. If sure felt good to be back in our own bed.

Now you are caught up on our whirlwind anniversary get-away.  Next weekend we head down to Naples for grandson Tristan's high school graduation, and the weekend after that, we are going up to Georgia to visit with my sister and brother-in-law.  It is Tammy's birthday weekend, and Bruce's birthday is the 31st of May, so we will celebrate his birthday too.

Thanks for stopping by!!  Wishing everyone a great weekend and Memorial Day!